Naval fighters

Naval Fighters are typically single engine fighter aircraft (although there are a couple twin-engine naval fighters) which utilize a single pilot and are constructed in a way to adapt to landing on an aircraft carrier.

Naval fighters generally require unique modifications such as a tail-hook which allow them to snag cables stretched across the carrier deck to bring the plane to a halt in a relatively short space. Folding wings on the aircraft freed up necessary space in the aircraft carrier which allowed for storage of more aircraft than would otherwise be possible with fixed extended wings.

Their designs widely vary. Typically, features of carrier fighters often include:

Tri-cycle landing gear, keeping the nose of the aircraft high preventing the propeller from striking the carrier deck on landing

Tail-hooks which aided the aircraft in slowing down very quickly when landing on the carrier deck

Very agile, generally with a very low stall-speed needed for landing on carriers